Another Side of Elaine Dundy

The Lyric Theater, Tupelo, Mississippi

If you only know Elaine Dundy through her novels (the ones we publish were written early in her career) then you probably don't know that Dundy was the author of Elvis and Gladys, a well-regarded biography of the singer and his mother ("my friends thought I'd gone not only out of my mind but my realm" she wrote in her biography, Life Itself) and Ferriday, Louisiana. She spent many months in Tupelo, Mississippi in the early 80s researching Elvis's birthplace and made some lifelong friends there, including Roy Turner, a reasearch assistant who became one of her best friends. Since Elaine's death, Roy's been working on setting up a foundation to benefit the arts in Tupelo. The first grant has been awarded to the Lyric Theater, where Elvis watched movies as a child—and which now houses a local theater group.

Royalties from the sale of Elaine Dundy's books will go to the fund. For the full text of the article below, click here.